Multigame selection

ABSTRACT

A gaming system ( 100 ) comprises a gaming server (system controller) ( 54 ), a plurality of gaming machines ( 10 ), and a communications system ( 63 ) connecting each of the plurality of gaming machines ( 10 ) to the gaming server ( 53 ). The gaming machines ( 10 ) each have a display ( 14 ), player controls ( 22 ), a player tracking device, such as a card reader ( 24.3 ) for reading player tracking cards ( 27 ), and a game processor ( 34 ) which displays sequential game images of a game being played on the respective display ( 14 ). Each game processor ( 34 ) plays a game initiated by the player, where the game is one of a plurality of games available on the gaming machine ( 10 ) and selectable by the player. Each gaming machine ( 10 ) includes game selection means ( 16 ) which displays a selection of games ( 211 - 216  &amp;  311 - 316 ) available on the machine for the player to play. The games ( 211 - 216  &amp;  311 - 316 ) offered for selection are ordered according to a ranking determined as a function of the player&#39;s past history of playing games and a history of games played by other players.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority from Provisional PatentApplication No 2003905171 filed on Sep. 22, 2003, the contents of whichis incorporated herein by reference.

INTRODUCTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of gaming and inparticular the invention provides an improved method of game selectionin a multigame environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A player in a casino is presented with a choice from among potentiallyhundreds of gaming machines. Players develop a preference certain gamesfrom among all the ones available, and try various machines to find theones they like. Given this large choice it can be difficult for a playerto find games they like to play.

Multi-game machines offer more than one game on a single electronicgaming machine (EGM). This can dramatically increase the choicesavailable to players, but makes it more difficult for the player toidentify games that they like amongst the many games provided. Astechnology progresses and multi-game machines become more capable thenumber of games will increase even further as manufacturers entire gamelibraries could potentially become available on a single machine.Internet gaming web sites have the same problem, with many gamesavailable via the one gaming terminal (eg a home computer).

Gaming machines in a Casino are often networked for the purposes ofsecurity, accounting, credit transfer, bonusing, and for playermarketing. These systems typically track players using a magnetic cardthat the player inserts into the gaming machine, the magnetic card beingassociated with a player account on a central server. U.S. Pat. No.4,636,951 (Harlick) shows a system for networking gaming machines toprovide a credit transfer mechanism between machines and a centralcashier station.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,961 (Acres) shows a bonusing system, in which playertracking is provided via a magnetic card carried by a player and whichthe player inserts into a magnetic card reader in a gaming machine toidentify the player to the machine and/or the entire system.

Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as“comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusionof a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers orsteps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, orgroup of elements, integers or steps.

Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or thelike which has been included in the present specification is solely forthe purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is notto be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form partof the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the fieldrelevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority dateof each claim of this application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect, the present invention consists in a gamingsystem including gaming server, a plurality of gaming machines, and acommunications system connecting each of the plurality of gamingmachines to the gaming server, the gaming machines each having displaymeans, player input means, player tracking input means and game controlmeans arranged to control images displayed on the respective displaymeans, each game control means being arranged to play a game initiatedby the player, the game being one of a plurality of games available onthe gaming machine and selectable by the player and the game having agame result which, if it is a winning result, will cause the gamecontrol means to award a prize to the player, the gaming system beingcharacterised in that each gaming machine includes game selection meanswhich displays a selection of games available on the machine for theplayer to play, the selection being ordered according to a rankingdetermined as a function of the player's past history of playing gamesand a history of games played by other players.

According to a second aspect, the present invention consists in a gamingmachine connected to a gaming system wherein the gaming system comprisesa gaming server, a plurality of said gaming machines, and acommunications system connecting each of the plurality of gamingmachines to the gaming server, the gaming machine having display means,player input means, player tracking input means and game control meansarranged to control images displayed on the respective display means,the game control means being arranged to play a game initiated by theplayer, the game being one of a plurality of games available on thegaming machine and selectable by the player and the game having a gameresult which, if it is a winning result, will cause the game controlmeans to award a prize to the player, the gaming machine beingcharacterised in that it includes game selection means which displays aselection of games available on the machine for the player to play, theselection being ordered according to a ranking determined as a functionof the player's past history of playing games and a history of gamesplayed by other players.

According to a third aspect, the present invention consists in a gamingmachine, the gaming machine having display means, player input means,player tracking input means and game control means arranged to controlimages displayed on the respective display means, the game control meansbeing arranged to play a game initiated by the player, the game beingone of a plurality of games available on the gaming machine andselectable by the player and the game having a game result which, if itis a winning result, will cause the game control means to award a prizeto the player, the gaming machine being characterised in that itincludes game selection means which displays a selection of gamesavailable on the machine for the player to play, the selection beingordered according to a ranking determined as a function of the player'spast history of playing games and a history of games played by otherplayers.

According to a fourth aspect, the present invention consists in a gamerecommendation display device connected to a gaming system, the gamerecommendation display device comprising a computational device, havinga display means and a player input, the device being characterised inthat it includes game selection means which displays a selection ofgames available on the system for the player to play, the selectionbeing ordered according to a ranking determined as a function of theplayer's past history of playing games and a history of games played byother players.

The selection means orders the selection of games according to theplayers past history of games played on the current machine in thecurrent playing session only.

The selection means may order the selection of games according to theplayers past history of games played on any machine in the system in thecurrent session and any previous session. The selection means may alsoorder the selection of games according to the past history of gamesplayed by others on the current machine. Further, the selection meansmay order the selection of games according to the past history of gamesplayed by others on any machine in the system.

The selection of games and their order of representation is preferablymade by a recommendation engine either located in the gaming machine oron a server connected to the network to which the gaming machine isconnected. The recommendation engine preferably collects data on theplaying habits of all distinguishable individuals determined by thesystem (that is individuals for whom the same individual can be linkedto a plurality of game plays). The player data is processes to determinethe most popular games and the groups of games that are popular withparticular individuals. For each game in the system, the processed dataresults in a list of other games that would be of similar enjoymentvalue to the player.

According to a fifth aspect, the present invention consists in a gamingmachine, the gaming machine having display means, player input means andgame control means arranged to control images displayed on therespective display means, the game control means being arranged to playa game initiated by the player, the game being one of a plurality ofgames available on the gaming machine and selectable by the player andthe game having a game result which, if it is a winning result, willcause the game control means to award a prize to the player, the gamingmachine being characterised in that it includes game selection meanswhich displays a plurality of game categories, each game categoryassociated with one or more of the plurality of games available on thegaming machine and is responsive to the selection of a category by theplayer to display a list of games with which the selected category isassociated.

The available games are preferably split into a number of categoriesaccording to common player preferences and presented to the player in aselection window. The categories may include games with high wins, gameswith frequent wins, older (traditional) games, card games, slot games,and currently popular games. The same game may appear in more than onecategory. The player will typically select a category by touching anassociated button. Preferably the button is a pseudo-button on a touchsensitive video screen display but it may also be a button of aconventional switch.

Preferably one of the categories is a recommended games category and isassociated with a selection of games determined as a function of theplayer's past history of playing games and a history of games played byother players to be games that are likely to be games the player wouldselect.

Within each category the games may be further ordered, either withsub-categories or if multiple pages of games exist then according to thepage number.

In a refinement of this arrangement the list of games displayed forselection by the player are generated according to a set of filterswhere each is arranged to select games in a particular category. Eachgame is assigned one or more tags indicating a category with which thegame is associated, and the presence of the tag in respect of a game isused by the filter to select the game for inclusion on the displayedgames list. For example a game may be ‘high win’ and ‘popular’. If theplayer selects either (or both) ‘high win’ and ‘popular’ filters thenthis game will appear in the selection. If another filter, such as“frequent win”, is selected the game will not appear in the selectionlist as it does not have a frequent win tag. Preferably each filter isrepresented by a button and the filters are toggled on and off byselecting the filter button. Some filters may disable other filters whenselected, if the categories are mutually exclusive. The “high wins” and“frequent wins” categories are likely to be mutually exclusive as it isnot possible to design a game with frequent high wins without returningto the player more money than they bet.

In an further preferred embodiment, the number of categories displayedto the player is a subset of those available, and the categoriesdisplayed can be selected by the player from the total set. Alternatelythe categories are dynamically selected by the gaming machine and/orsystem according to players playing history.

The categories of games and/or games in each category may be changeddynamically, either manually or according to pre-programmed criteriasuch as time of day or number gaming machines in play. The command tochange the games may be initiated from within the gaming machine orremotely from network control system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention is now described by way of example withreference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a first style of gaming machine,suitable for use in systems implementing embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a second style of gaming machine,suitable for use in systems implementing embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a control circuit of the gaming machinesof FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a system implementing an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a first screen layout used in embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 shows a variation of the screen of FIG. 5 used in embodiments ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a system which embodies the presentinvention showing the recommendation engine in detail;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a recommendation process; and

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a process for building a similar games table.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1 a typical gaming machine is illustrated of a type towhich the present invention can be applied. The machine illustrated inFIG. 1 is of a type that allows credit input by insertion of coins orbills but the invention can also be applied to machines that only allowcredit input by transfer of credit from a central cashier or fromanother gaming machine. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 generallydesignates a gaming machine, including a game or games to be played by aplayer of the machine. The machine 10 includes a console 12 having adisplay means in the form of a video display unit 14 on which a game 16is played. The video display unit 14 may be implemented as a cathode rayscreen device, a liquid crystal display, a plasma screen, or the like.The game 16 as illustrated in FIG. 1 is a spinning reel game whichsimulates the rotation of a number of spinning reels 18, however manyother styles of game are also possible.

A mid-trim 20 of the machine 10 optionally houses a keypad 22 forenabling a player to play the game 16. The mid-trim 20 also houses acredit input mechanism 24 including a coin input chute 96 and a billcollector 97. As illustrated in FIG. 2, some gaming machines use a touchscreen for player input, in which case the keypad 22 would not berequired on the mid-trim in those machines. Instead the keys of thekeypad 22 of the FIG. 1 machine would be represented as a graphic image29 on the screen 16 and touch sensors 38 (refer to FIG. 3) locatedadjacent the screen surface would detect touching of the screen torecord player selections. In all other respects the machines of FIGS. 1and 2 are essentially functionally identical.

The machine 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a top box 26 on which artwork28 is carried. The artwork 28 includes pay tables, details of bonusawards, etc. The artwork 28 in the top box 26 may optionally bedisplayed on a video display such as a CRT of LCD panel.

A coin tray 30 is mounted beneath the console 12 for cash payouts fromthe machine 10.

In machines employing the present invention the machine may also beconnected via a computer network to other gaming machines and a systemcontroller in which case player profiles may be saved on the systemcontroller and credits can be applied to and cleared from the machinevia the network. The credits can either be established at a cashiersstation and transferred to the machine or alternatively a player mightalready have credits in another machine in the network and which theymay wish to transfer to a new machine that they wish to play.

To facilitate the establishment of player profiles, the use of playerprofiles to enhance player enjoyment and to enable the secure transferof cash to a machine, each machine is provided with a card reader 98 andthe player is issued with a player tracking card 27 either when enteringthe premises or when establishing credit in the system. This trackingcard 27 is inserted into the card reader 98 of a machine by the playerafter the player has established a credit on the system and has had thecredit transferred to the desired machine. Alternatively the card may bea membership card permanently in the possession of the player and theplayer may establish a credit in an account associated with theirmembership record. By inserting the card 27 into the card reader 98 ofthe machine he or she intends to play, the player identifies him orherself to the machine and establishes that a credit held in the systembelongs to them. In the illustrated embodiment, the card reader 98 isnot connected directly to the machine's controller 36 but to the systeminterface 51, which is connected to the network via interconnection 52and to the machine controller 36 as seen in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 3 of the drawings, a control means or control circuit32 is illustrated. A program which implements the game and playerinterface is run on a processor 34 of the control circuit 32. Theprocessor 34 forms part of a controller 36 that drives the screen of thevideo display unit 14 and that receives input signals from player inputssuch as the optional keypad 22 (see FIG. 1) or the optional sensors 38associated with the pseudo-keypad 29 (see FIG. 2). The sensors 38, ifused, include touch sensors mounted in the screen of the video displayunit 14 and associated with the representation of pseudo-buttons of thekeypad 29, displayed on the display 16, thereby replicating the buttonsof the keypad 22. The controller 36 also receives input pulses from themechanism 24 to determine whether or not a player has providedsufficient credit to commence playing. The credit input mechanism 24 maycomprise one or more of several credit input devices such as a coininput chute 96 a bill collector 97, and a card reader 98 or any suitableother type of validation device. In some embodiments of the presentinvention it is important that there be a player tracking input device,such as the card reader 24.3, that can be used to associate a particularplayer with a particular player profile and optionally a credit held inthe system (either as data held in a machine or in the system controlleror possibly in a further controller reserved for financial information).Note that player tracking does not require knowing the actual identityof the player but is only used to associate the player with a particularplayer profile and/or credit. This is achieved in the preferredembodiment by using a player tracking card 27, which is a simplemagnetic stripe card encoded with a unique code, that may be issued tothe player either when they enter the establishment or whenestablishment or when they establish a credit in the system and is readby the card reader 24.3. However other methods of player identificationcan be employed in tracking systems such as pin numbers, scannable tagsof various known types such as magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, etc.,iris recognition, finger prints or other bio-sensor systems.

Finally, the controller 36 optionally drives a payout mechanism which,for example, may be ticket printer 41, or a coin hopper 40 for feedingcoins to the coin tray 30 to make a pay out to a player when the playerwishes to redeem his or her credit. Again however, in embodiments of thepresent invention, a payout mechanism is not essential as the player mayremove the credit held in the machine by transferring it to anothermachine or to a cashier.

Referring to FIG. 4, a system in which the present invention isimplemented is illustrated. The system comprises a plurality of gamingmachines 10 each connected to a network 63 by its respective systeminterface 51 and network connection 52. The network connections 52 arepreferably connected to the remainder of the network via a hub 53although other networking architectures such as daisy chaining may alsobe employed. Controlling the network is a system controller 54 and acashier's terminal 55 is optionally connected, either to the systemcontroller 54 directly, as illustrated in FIG. 4, or alternatively viathe network hub 53. The Cashier may be replaced or supplemented by anelectronic cashier or cash in/cash out terminal 59 comprising acontroller 56 to which is connected a player touch screen 58 and a cardreader 57. The electronic cashier uses EFT transactions to debit orcredit a player's account at a financial institution to establish orrefund a player's credit in the gaming system.

While embodiments of the invention will be described by way of examplein the context of the conventional gaming machine and gaming systemdescribed above, it will be recognized that the invention is equallyapplicable to other gaming environments such as internet gaming wheregames are played on a personal computer (or, possibly a hand held devicesuch as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or Mobile Phone) connected toan internet gaming website, or a stand alone hand held device or anyother suitable gaming environment.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the preferred implementation a network connectsEGMs to a server. In the traditional manner the server tracks players bytheir use of a magnetic player tracking or identity card and collectsstatistics about the games played.

The lists of games available to the player may be very large, such thatit is difficult for the player to page through large number of gameselection screens to find games that they like.

The game play history for all players is analyzed by a recommendationengine 60, which given a particular players game playing historyproduces a list of other recommended games that the player might enjoyplaying based on the play history of other players. The list ofrecommendations is used to determine the presentation of the nextavailable games to the player.

When the player wants to choose a new game to play the EGM ranks theunplayed games according to the recommendation and preferentiallydisplays the most highly recommended games to the player. For example,if the gaming machine has 100 games available to play, and games arepresented 10 at a time on 10 selection screens, then the first selectionscreen contains the 10 most highly recommended games. The next selectionscreen presents the 10 next most highly recommended games, etc., untilthe last screen has the least recommended games.

Of course the player may not want to accept a list of recommendationsand may rather select a game on other criteria such as game type orprize distribution. Referring to FIG. 5, in order to accommodate thevarious differing player requirements, the total list of games ispreferably split into a number of categories according to common playerpreferences and presented to the player in a selection window 16 asillustrated. Such categories may include games with high wins, gameswith frequent wins, older (traditional) games, card games, slot games,and currently popular games. The same game may appear in more than onecategory. In the screen 16, illustrated in FIG. 5, games are groupedaccording to categories selected by touch screen “buttons” 201 to 210and the game icons 211 to 216 displayed in the center of the screen 16represent the games belonging to the currently selected category or asubset of the games belonging to the selected category. One of thecategories, represented by the “Recommend” “button” 202, provides theset of recommended games, generated by the recommendation system asdescribed herein.

Within each category the games may be further ordered, either withsub-categories. If the selected games exceed the space available fordisplay of their respective icons, multiple pages will be provided andthe player may move through the pages using page buttons 217 and 218.

Referring to FIG. 6, alternatively the list of game icons 311 to 316displayed for selection by the player are generated according to a setof filters. Each game is assigned one or more tags indicating certainattributes (corresponding to categories) of the game, and the tag isused by the filter to select the game (or not) for inclusion on thedisplayed games list. For example a game may be ‘high win’ and‘popular’. If the player selects either (or both) ‘high win’ and‘popular’ filters then, by touching the corresponding filter “button”301 to 310, this game will appear in the selection. If another filter,such as frequent win, is selected the game will not appear in theselection list as it does not have a frequent win tag. Preferably thefilters are toggled on or off by selecting the respective filter“button” 301 to 310. Some filters may disable other filters whenselected, if the filters are mutually exclusive. The “high wins” and“frequent wins” filters are, for example, likely to be mutuallyexclusive as it is not possible to design a game with frequent high wins(within the usual meaning of these terms within the gaming industry)without returning to the player more money than they bet. Note that theplayer may simultaneously select multiple filters as illustrated by thegrey buttons in FIG. 6, in which case only games that are associatedwith all of the selected categories will be displayed. If the selectedgames exceed the space available for display of their respective icons,multiple pages will be provided and the player may move through thepages using page buttons 317 and 318.

In an further preferred embodiment, the number of categories displayedto the player is a subset of those available, and the categoriesdisplayed can be selected by the player from the total set. Alternatelythe categories are dynamically selected by the gaming machine and/orsystem according to players playing history. Preferably also, some ofthe categories are selected using the recommendation technique describedherein.

The categories of games and/or games in each category may be changeddynamically, either manually or according to pre-programmed criteriasuch as time of day or number gaming machines in play. The command tochange the games may be initiated from within the gaming machine orremotely from network control system.

When the “recommended” category is selected, the games selection playerinterface may only be partially influenced by the recommendations. Forexample, the player's favorite games may be presented as well as the topchoices from the recommendation list. The casino may also wish tooverride some of the recommendations to promote other games.

As games have a limited lifespan the age of the game being played isrecorded and used in making recommendations. Some players havepreferences for games of different ages (eg some players prefer newgames, some prefer older games).

Numerous variations on this implementation are clearly possible:

-   -   The recommendation engine may be provided by software running        either on one of the existing servers used for accounting,        bonusing, etc., or on a separate recommendation server.    -   The recommendation engine may also be part of the gaming        machine. This can be beneficial if the gaming machine is not        networked, or if there is a need to offload processing from the        system for cost or performance reasons. If the recommendation        engine is implemented on the gaming machine, then the gaming        machine will contain a database of previously collected player        statistics (either for that machine only or collected from other        machines in the establishment) to enable recommendations to be        generated.    -   Instead of player tracking with a magnetic stripe identity card,        a Smartcard may be used. Further, player history could be stored        on this card, providing easy transportation of the data to other        casinos.        Overview of Game Recommendation Function

The gaming machines in installations employing embodiments of thepresent invention provide functionality that allows players to searchfor and select games to play from a library of possibly hundreds ofgames stored on the system or the individual gaming machine. While theplayer plays gaming machines on the system a tracking system records thegames played and the frequency of playing each game. The tracking systemincludes a data structure and associated code which keeps track of gamesthat have been selected and played by a player for play and thisinformation is then used to provide recommendations for future gameselections of the current player and as a basis for recommendations toothers.

The system also implements a variety of different auxiliaryrecommendation function for recommending games to players.

One such function allows players to interactively rate individual gamesto create a personal game ratings profile, and applies collaborativefiltering techniques to each of these profiles to generate personalrecommendations.

The primary function of the recommendation engine is to recommend gamesto players currently playing on the system, but it could also be used inthe context of a website to make game recommendations to a player beforethey attend a gaming establishment or in the context of a recommendationterminal attached to the gaming network of an establishment to recommendgames to a player already in attendance at the establishment but notcurrently playing. Such a terminal might also direct a player to asuitable vacant machine for playing a selected game. Briefly, given aunary listing of games that are “known” to be of interest to a player(e.g., a list of games previously played, by the player), theRecommendation Engine generates a list of additional games(“recommendations”) that are predicted to be of interest to the player.(As used herein, the term “interest” refers generally to a player'sliking of or affinity for an game; the term “known” is used todistinguish games for which the player has implicitly or explicitlyindicated some level of interest from games predicted by theRecommendation Function to be of interest.)

A table is used to map games to lists of games having “similar affinity”for the player (“similar games lists”), without the player having torate the games (although, as mentioned above, the use of ratings data isalso envisaged). If a player is known to have shown interest in say,five games (such as five games the player recently played), the functionmay retrieve the similar games lists for these five games from thetable, and appropriately combine these lists (as will be describedbelow) to generate the recommendations.

The mappings of games to similar games (“game-to-game mappings”) may begenerated periodically, such as once per day (or more frequently), fromdata which reflects the collective interests of the community ofplayers. More specifically, the game-to-game mappings may be generatedby an off-line process which identifies correlations between knowninterests of players in particular games. For example, in the embodimentdescribed in detail below, the mappings are generating by analyzingplayer playing histories to identify correlations between use ofparticular games (e.g., games A and B are similar because a relativelylarge portion of the players that played game A also played game B). Thegame-to-game mappings could also reflect other types of similarities,including content-based similarities extracted by analyzing gamedescriptions.

An important aspect of this embodiment of the Recommendation Function isthat the relatively computation-intensive task of correlating gameinterests can optionally be performed off-line, and the results of thistask (game-to-game mappings) are stored in a mapping structure forsubsequent look-up. This enables the personal recommendations to begenerated rapidly and efficiently in real-time in response to a requestby the player, while still producing a broad varying comparison and notrequiring intensive processing.

Optionally, the similar games lists read from the table areappropriately weighted (prior to being combined) based on indicia of theplayer's affinity for or current interest in the corresponding games ofknown interest. For example, in one embodiment described below, if thegame of known interest was previously rated by the player, the rating isused to weight the corresponding similar games list. Similarly, thesimilar games list for a game that was played 1000 times in the lasthour may be weighted more heavily than the similar games list for a gamethat was played only 100 times in the past hour.

Embodiments of the invention may also make use of information regardinggames that the player has played in the current playing session asinputs to the Recommendation Function. For example, if the playercurrently has two games that they have played today, these two games canbe treated as the games of known interest for purposes of generatingrecommendations, in which case the recommendations may be generated anddisplayed automatically when the player views the game selection screen.

Using games played in the current playing sessions as inputs, tends toproduce recommendations that are highly correlated to the currentshort-term interests of the player; even if these short term interestsare not reflected by the player's long term gaming history. For example,if a regular player is currently playing with an occasional partner whohas different game interests than the regular player, this method willhave a tendency to identify other games that are well suited to the pairof players while they are playing together.

FIG. 7 illustrates the basic components of the gaming system site 100,including the components used to implement the Recommendation Server 60.The arrows in FIG. 7 show the general flow of information that is usedby the Recommendation Function. As illustrated by FIG. 7, RecommendationServer 60 processes requests received from gaming machines 34 over thenetwork 63 and send recommendation lists in reply. The RecommendationServer 60 accesses a Games Database 62 to generate lists of populargames and recommendation lists.

The Gaming System 100 also includes a “player profiles” database 64which stores account-specific information about players' playing gameson the system 100. Because a group of individuals can share an accountby playing as a group, a given “player” from the perspective of theRecommendation Engine 60 may include multiple actual players. Asillustrated by FIG. 7, the data stored for each player may include oneor more of the following types of information (among other things) thatcan be used to generate recommendations in accordance with theinvention: (a) the player's playing history, including dates of play,(b) the player's game ratings profile (if any), (c) the player'spersonal recent playing listings, and (d) a listing of games that wererecently (e.g., within the last six months) selected and then exitedagain without being played, or after having only been played a fewtimes.

The various processes 61, 66 of the recommendation server 60 may run,for example, on one or more Unix or NT based workstations or physicalservers (not shown) of the Gaming System 100. The similar games table 65is preferably stored as a B-tree data structure to permit efficientlook-up, and may be replicated across multiple machines (together withthe associated code of the Recommendation Process 61) to accommodateheavy loads.

The general form and content of the similar games table 65 will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 7. As this table can take on manyalternative forms, the details of the table are intended to illustrate,and not limit, the scope of the invention.

As indicated above, the similar games table 65 maps a list of games(“reference games”) 67 to lists of similar games 68 based at least uponthe collective interests of the community of players. The similar gamestable 65 may be generated periodically (e.g., once per day), or may becontinuously updated by the table generation process 66. If the tablegenerating process 66 is run once per day, it will preferably be runoff-line. The table generation process 66 generates the table 65 fromdata that reflects the collective interests of the community of players.In the embodiment described in detail herein, the similar games table isgenerated exclusively from the game playing histories of the communityof players (as depicted in FIG. 7). In other embodiments, the table 65may additionally or alternatively be generated from other indicia ofplayer-game interests, including indicia based on players' viewing(browsing) activities, game playing histories, and game rating profiles.For example, the table 65 could be built exclusively from the long termand/or recent game playing histories of players. The similar games table65 could also reflect non-collaborative type game similarities,including content-based similarities derived by comparing game ordescriptions or structural game elements.

Each entry in the similar games table 65 is preferably in the form of amapping of a list of all available games (“reference games list”) 67 toa corresponding list 68 of similar games (“similar games lists”).

Each similar games list 68 consists of the N (e.g., 5) games which,based on correlations between playing of games, are deemed to be themost closely related to the respective game 67. Each game in the similargames list 68 is stored together with a commonality index (“CI”) valuewhich indicates the relatedness of that game to the reference game 67,based on play frequency of the respective games. A relatively highcommonality index for a pair of games Game J and Game K indicates that arelatively large percentage of players who played Game J also playedGame K (and vice versa). A relatively low commonality index for Game Jand Game K indicates that a relatively small percentage of the playerswho played Game J also played Game K (and vice versa). As describedbelow, the similar games lists are generated, for each game available onthe system, by selecting the N other games that have the highestcommonality index values. Using this method, Game J may be included inGame K's similar games list even though Game K is not present in GameJ's similar games list.

In the embodiment depicted by FIG. 7, the games are represented withinthe similar games table 65 using game IDs, such as game cataloguenumbers or other identifiers. Alternatively, the games could berepresented within the table by title, where each title is the name bywhich the game is known to players.

The general sequence of steps that are performed by the recommendationprocess 52 to generate a set of personal game recommendations will nowbe described with reference to FIG. 8.

The FIG. 8 process 70 is invoked in real-time in response to an onlineaction of the player. For example, the recommendations are generated anddisplayed in real-time (based on the player's play history and/or gameratings profile) in response to selection by the player of a new gameinstructions selection button 201-210 (See FIGS. 5 & 6). Therecommendations are generated (based on the player's current and/orrecent game playing history) in real-time when the player initiates arecommendation button 202, and are displayed on the gaming machinedisplay screen 16 and are displayed on the same screen as icons 211-216.

Any of a variety of other methods can be used to initiate therecommendations generation process and to display the recommendations tothe player. For example, the recommendations can automatically begenerated periodically and sent to the player as a message on the screenbetween games. Further, the personal recommendations could be generatedin advance of any request or action by the player, and cached untilrequested.

As illustrated by FIG. 8, the first step (step 71) of therecommendations-generation process involves identifying a set of gamesthat are of known interest to the player. The “knowledge” of theplayer's interest can be based on explicit indications of interest(e.g., the player rated the game highly) or implicit indications ofinterest (e.g., the player selected the game and played it at least 5times).

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7, the games of known interest areselected from one or more of the following groups: (a) games in theplayer's long term playing history; (b) games in the player's short termplaying history i.e., the games played in the current session and, (c)games rated by the player (optionally with a score that exceeds acertain threshold. In other embodiments, the games of known interest mayadditionally or alternatively be selected based on the viewingactivities of the player. For example, the recommendations process 52could select games that were viewed by the player for an extended periodof time and/or viewed more than once. Further, the player could beprompted to select games of interest from a list of popular games.

For each game of known interest, the recommendation function 61retrieves the corresponding similar games list 68 from the similar gamestable 65 (step 72), if such a list exists. If no entries exist in thetable 65 for any of the games of known interest, the process 52 may beterminated; alternatively, the process could attempt to identifyadditional games of interest, such as by accessing other sources ofinterest information.

In step 73, the similar games lists are filtered to remove unwantedgames. The games removed during the filtering process may include, forexample, games that have already been played only a small number oftimes and then not played again by the player or games that have beenrated lowly by the player. The filtering step could alternatively beperformed at a different stage of the process, such as after thesubsequent combining step.

After the similar games lists 68 are filtered in step 73, the lists areappropriately combined (step 74), such as by merging the lists. Thesimilar games lists 68 are then preferably weighted 75 by multiplyingthe commonality index values of the list by a weighting value. Thecommonality index values as weighted by any applicable weighting valueare referred to herein as “scores”. In other embodiments, therecommendations may be generated without weighting the similar gameslists 68. The resulting list is then sorted (step 76) in order ofhighest-to-lowest score. The result of step 76 is a list(“recommendations list”) of games to be recommended to the player.

In step 75, the similar games lists 68 are optionally weighted based oninformation about the player's affinity for the corresponding games ofknown interest. For example, a similar games list 68 may be weightedheavily if the player gave the corresponding popular game a rating of“5” on a scale or 1-5, or if the player the game for a large number ofplays. Weighting a similar games list 68 heavily has the effect ofincreasing the likelihood that the games in that list we be included inthe recommendations that are ultimately presented to the player. In oneimplementation described below, the player is presumed to have a greateraffinity for recently played games over earlier played games.

In step 77, one or more additional games are optionally added to therecommendations list. In one embodiment, the games added in step 77 areselected from the set of games (if any) in the player's viewing history.As an important benefit of this step, the recommendations include one ormore games that the player previously considered playing but did notactually play. The games added in step 77 may additionally oralternatively be selected using another recommendations method, such asa content-based method.

Finally, in step 78, a list of the top M (e.g., 6) games of therecommendations list are returned to the gaming machine where therequest was generated. The gaming machine incorporates this list intoone or more screens of recommendations that are displayed to the player,with each recommended game being presented as displayed selection iconon the display.

The table-generation process 66 is preferably executed periodically(e.g., once a day) to generate a similar games table 65 that reflectsthe most recent play history data. The recommendation process 61 usesthe most recently generated version of the table 65 to generaterecommendations.

FIG. 9 illustrates the sequence of steps that are performed by the tablegeneration process 66 to build the similar games table 65. The generalform of temporary data structures that are generated during the processare shown at the right of the drawing. As will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art, any of a variety of alternative methods could beused to generate the table 65.

As depicted by FIG. 9, the process initially retrieves the gaminghistories for all players (step 81). Each gaming history is in thegeneral form of the player ID of a player together with a list of thegame IDs of the games played by that player and the dates on which theplayer has played the games and the number of times the game was playedon each occasion.

In steps 82 and 84, the process generates two temporary tables 83 and85. The first table 83 maps individual players to the games they playedand includes dates and times played. The second table 85 maps games tothe players that played such games and again includes the total timesplayed (within a relevant period of interest).

In step 86, the process finds for each game in the system (“referencegame”) those other games played by a common player, and lists theplayers and games against the “reference game” in a further temporarytable 87. This may be accomplished, for example, by selecting from thegame-to-players table 85 those games that were played by more than athreshold number (e.g., 10) of the players. For each <reference game,other game> pair/player combination, the number of plays of the gameplayed least by the player is also listed.

In step 88, the process generates the commonality indexes (CI) for each<reference game, other game> pair in the table 87. As indicated above,the CI values are measures of the similarity between two games, withlarger CI values indicating greater degrees of similarity. Thecommonality indexes are preferably generated such that, for a givenreference game, the respective commonality indexes of the correspondingother games take into consideration both (a) the total number of playsof each game in the respective period, and (b) the number of times eachplayer played the least popular of each pair of games. A preferredmethod for generating the commonality index values is set forth in theequation below (Eqn 1).

$\begin{matrix}{{{CI}( {{{Game}\mspace{14mu} A},{{Game}\mspace{14mu} B}} )} = \frac{{{\sum{X\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu}{all}\mspace{14mu}{players}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{games}\mspace{14mu} A}}\&}\mspace{11mu} B}{{Sqrt}( {X \times Y} )}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

where, for each player who has played Game A and Game B in a givenperiod, “X” is the number of plays of the least played game (A or B),“Y” is the total number of plays of Game A and “Z” is the total numberof plays of Game B in the period

By way of example, foe three games, Game_G, Game_J and Game_K whereGame_G has been played 40,000 times by 500 players, Game_J 90000 by 500players, and Game_K 100,000 by 5,000 players. In addition, Game_G andGame_J have 50 players in common, and Game_G and Game K have 60 playersin common. ΣX for games G and J is 2500 and ΣX for games G and K is 960.Applying the equation above to the values shown in FIG. 4 produces thefollowing results:CI(Game_(—) G,Game_(—) J)=2500/sqrt(40000.times.90000))=0.042CI(Game_(—) G,Game K)=960/sqrt(90000.times.100,000))=0.010

Thus, even though Games G and K have more customers in common than GamesG and J, Games G and J are treated as being more similar than Games Gand K. This result desirably reflects the fact that for Game J playerswho played Game_G the number of plays of both games is much greater thanfor Game K players who played Game_G.

Because this equation is symmetrical (i.e., CI(Game_A,Game_B)=CI(Game_B, Game A)), it is not necessary to separately calculatethe CI value for every location in the table 89.

Following step 88 of FIG. 9, the similar games table 65 can be complied(step 91) such that each reference game in the reference game list 67has a respective set of other games in the “other games” list 68 whichincludes all of the other games from the table 89 and their associatedCI values Using the values in the example above, Game_J would bepositioned closer to the top of the Game G's list than Game K, since0.042>0.010.

Optionally (not shown), the other games list is filtered by deleting alllist entries that have fewer than a predetermined number of (say 10)players in common.

A non-gaming machine terminal may also be used to allow the player toget recommendations for new games to play. This could be implemented ata casino or as an Internet website and may allow a player to inputvarious likes (and dislikes) for games, then use the recommendationengine to recommend games.

Promotions and Advertising

Casinos often run promotions, posting advertising literature to theplayers to entice them to return to the casino for further play. Amarketing promotion may use the players' previously collected playinformation and use the recommendation engine to customize promotions tothat player. For example the artwork of advertising material may beselected from games that have not yet been played, but are likely toappeal to the player. Alternately free credits may be provided formachines that the player has not yet played, but is likely to enjoyplaying.

Attract Mode

When a gaming machine is not being played after some time it enters an“attract” mode, where it demonstrates the game it runs. A multi-gamemachine is able to demonstrate any of it's games, so it is beneficial todemonstrate a game more likely to appeal to a nearby potential player.

There are cases when a potential player may be identified.

1. A potential player has inserted an identity card, but not yetselected a game or started playing.

2. A player is playing the gaming machine next to the unplayed gamingmachine. The player can easily watch the unplayed machine and may eitherfind a new game to play, or play both at the same time (especially inthe case of a couple of people playing together).

When at least some of the players in the casino have been identified (egthough play machines), their average preference is determined and used.Although not as accurate as targeting an individual player, this has theadvantage of continuously and automatically adjusting the presentationof machines in the casino to optimum benefit.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerousvariations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown inthe specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are,therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and notrestrictive.

1. A gaming system comprising a gaming server, a plurality of gamingmachines, and a communications system connecting each of the pluralityof gaming machines to the gaming server, the gaming machines each havinga display, a player interface, and a game controller arranged to controlimages displayed on the respective display, the gaming system operableto track play of a plurality of games played by a plurality of playerson the gaming machines, the game controller being arranged to play agame initiated by a player at a said gaming machine, the game being oneof a subset of the plurality of games, the subset of the plurality ofgames being available for play on the gaming machine and selectable bythe player, the one of the subset of the plurality of game having a gameresult which, if it is a winning result, will cause the game controllerto award a prize to the player, wherein each said gaming machineincludes a game selector that is arranged to select the subset of theplurality of games and display the subset of the games on the displayfor the player to play, wherein the game selector is arranged to selectthe subset of the plurality of games based on the player's past historyof playing any of the plurality of games and a history of any of theplurality of games played by other players.
 2. The system as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the player's past history of playing any of theplurality of games comprises any of the plurality of games played on thecurrent machine in a current playing session only.
 3. The system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the player's past history of playing any ofthe plurality of games comprises any of the plurality of games played onany gaming machine in the system in a current playing session and anyprevious session.
 4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein thehistory of any of the plurality of games played by other playerscomprises a history of play on that gaming machine and not other gamingmachines.
 5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the history ofany of the plurality of games played by other players comprises ahistory of play on any gaming machine in the system.
 6. The system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the subset of the plurality of games fordisplay by the game selector and their order of representation isselected by a recommendation engine.
 7. The system as claimed in claim6, wherein the recommendation engine is located in the gaming machine.8. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the recommendation engineis located on a server connected to the communications system.
 9. Thesystem as claimed in claim 6, wherein the recommendation engine collectsplayer data on the playing habits of all distinguishable individuals whocan be linked to a plurality of game plays of the plurality of games.10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the player data isprocessed to determine the most popular games of the plurality of gameswith particular individuals.
 11. The system as claimed in claim 9,wherein the player data is processed to determine groups of games of theplurality of games that are popular with particular individuals.
 12. Thesystem as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recommendation engine isconfigured to process the player data to determine at least one populargame of the plurality of games for the player, maintain for each game ofthe plurality of games in the system a list of other games of theplurality of games that would be of similar enjoyment value to theplayer, and use the list to select the subset of the plurality of games.13. The gaming system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of gamesavailable on the gaming machine comprise games stored on the system andaccessible by the plurality of gaming machines.
 14. The gaming system ofclaim 1, wherein the player's past history of playing any of theplurality of games and the history of any of the plurality of gamesplayed by other players comprises a rank allocated to a game of theplurality of games by the player and by the other players respectively.15. The gaming system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the plurality ofgames is determined dependent on age of the game information relating toeach of the plurality of games.
 16. The gaming system of claim 6,wherein the subset of the plurality of games is displayed according to arank of each game in the subset of the plurality of games, the rank ofeach game of the plurality of games being determined by the selectionengine dependent on at least one of the player's past history of playingany of the plurality of games and a history of any of the plurality ofgames played by other players.
 17. A gaming machine connected to agaming system wherein the gaming system comprises a gaming server, aplurality of said gaming machines, and a communications systemconnecting each of the plurality of gaming machines to the gamingserver, the gaming machine having a display, a player interface, and agame controller arranged to control images displayed on the display, thegame controller being arranged to play a game initiated by a player, thegame being one of a plurality of games available on the gaming machineand selectable by the player and the game having a game result which, ifit is a winning result, will cause the game controller to award a prizeto the player, wherein the gaming machine further comprises a gameselector that is arranged to select a subset of the plurality of gamesand display the subset of the plurality of games on the display for theplayer to play, wherein the game selector is arranged to select thesubset of the plurality of games based on the player's past history ofplaying any of the plurality of games and a history of any of theplurality of games played by other players.
 18. The gaming machine ofclaim 17, wherein the player's past history of playing any of theplurality of games comprises a history of any of the plurality of gamesplayed on any gaming machine in the system in the current session and atleast one previous session.
 19. The gaming machine of claim 17, whereinthe history of any of the plurality of games played by others comprisesa history of any of the plurality of games played on any gaming machinein the system.
 20. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the subset ofthe plurality of games for display and their order of representation isselected by a recommendation engine located on a server connected to thecommunications system.
 21. The gaming machine of claim 17 wherein foreach game of the plurality of games in the system, the player's pasthistory of playing any of the plurality of games and a history of any ofthe plurality of games played by other players results in a list ofother games of the plurality of games that would be of similar enjoymentvalue to the player.
 22. A gaming machine comprising a display, playerinterface, and game controller arranged to control images displayed onthe display, the game controller being arranged to play a game initiatedby the player, the game being one of a plurality of games available onthe gaming machine and selectable by the player and the game having agame result which, if it is a winning result, will cause the gamecontrol means to award a prize to the player, the gaming machine beingoperable to track play of the plurality of games by a player of thegaming machine and further comprising a game selector that is arrangedto select a subset of the plurality of games and display the subset ofplurality of games on the display, wherein the game selector is arrangedto select the subset of the plurality of games based on the player'spast history of playing any of the plurality of games and a history ofany of the plurality of games played by other players.
 23. The gamingmachine of claim 22, wherein the player's past history of playing any ofthe plurality of games comprises any of the plurality of games played onthe gaming machine in a current playing session only.
 24. The gamingmachine of claim 22, wherein the history of any of the plurality ofgames played by others comprises a history of play on that gamingmachine only.
 25. The gaming machine of claim 22, wherein the subset ofthe plurality of games for display is selected by a recommendationengine and the recommendation engine is located in the gaming machine.26. The gaming machine of claim 25, wherein the recommendation enginecollects player data on the playing habits of all distinguishableindividuals who can be linked to a plurality of game plays of theplurality of games.
 27. The gaming machine of claim 26, wherein theplayer data is processed to determine the most popular games of theplurality of games with particular individuals.
 28. The gaming machineof claim 27, wherein the player data is processed to determine groups ofgames of the plurality of games that are popular with particularindividuals.
 29. The gaming machine of claim 27, wherein for each gameof the plurality of games on the machine, the processed data results ina list of other games of the plurality of games that would be of similarenjoyment value to the player and the list is used to select the subsetof the plurality of games.